Edinburgh Morning News 22/9

Members of Kirkliston Bowling Club turned out in substantial numbers on Sunday to give a first Test Run to two new imaginative formats given the prototype titles of ‘The SuperMix’ and ‘The Cheesetown Sandwich’.

Both have originated from the same KBC source that introduced The Top Ten (1975), The Top Five Singles (1977), The Inter County Calder Cup (1983), and the West Lothian Masters (1999) while some 40 years on the club still runs, annually, the popular Cut Throat Three Player Singles. The Cheesetown Sandwich was inspired by the recent Olympic Games and the challenge of translating the Track Relay into a Bowls format that if successful would bring added value and interest to a sport that is renowned as slow to introduce change.

The end result was a 3 player team each in turn playing four ends of 2Bowl Singles with the score not stopping but accumulating after each handover then repeating the process for a second leg with the captain having the tactical option of changing the sequence. The value of this emerged in the head to head featuring the Logan team of Grant (40), his son Kyle (9), and his cousin Calum (27) with Grant picking up the baton as third player in the first leg facing an 8-3 deficit.

Grant – 9 nine times club champion – launched a 2, 2, 1, 2 fight back then having elected to continue as the first player of the second leg added 1, 2, 2, 2, to accelerate his team from 3-8 to 17-8. Son Kyle came back onto the scene as the middleman and was suitably inspired to add a blistering run of 2, 2, (2), 2 for a 23-10 handover that allowed Calum to contribute a finish of 2, 1, (1), 1 that powered the trio to a 27-11 win over Stewart Gilmour, Scott McMaster, and Jordan Pearce.

The SuperMix called for two teams that were 19 strong each in number and KBC match secretary Andi Gray did a magnificent job at short notice to attract 38 local bowling enthusiasts plus a few extra as covers. The design of the format extends on a Top Ten line up of Singles, Pair, Triple, Four with additional interest being added via a rink of 2Bowl Singles x 3, and a rink of 2Bowl Pairs x 3.

Whilst the understanding of the format and the scoring system via the written and spoken word gives the immediate impression that one has to be a Philadelphia lawyer to understand it all it has to be said that team captains Grant Logan and Andi Gray grasped the detail immediately when put into practice. Essentially the scoring on the traditional rink of Fours, Triples, and Pairs was divided into three equal phases, the winner of each phase earning 2 points but unlike set play the scoreboard kept running to also give an aggregate win worth 2 points also.

The principal being that points are being clicked up across the rinks virtually every hour thereby keeping players/official/spectators on their toes from start to finish. The format also sets up a pre-match selection challenge with whosever is in charge having to decide his allocation of players to each discipline; but also his 1, 2, 3, order of play in the 2Bowl Singles and Pairs. A bit like the Ryder Cup.

It so happened that the Test Run ended in a 24-24 share of the points triggering the tiebreak result in the 4Bowl Singles where Jordan Pearce’s 21-16 win over Calum Logan tipped the final outcome in favour of the Andi Gray Team.

Grant Logan summed up the days event by saying “ The SuperMix promises to be a cracking team event while The Cheesetown Sandwich went down a treat and has the potential of being an Open, County, or internal club event. A great day was had by all”. Both formats would work as All Male – All Female – or Mixed events; but only time will tell if either or both take off and fly to reach the heights of others from the same stable.

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This website is dedicated to the memory of its originator, Stewart Peacock. Stewart passed away in March 2005. Over the years Stewart built this website into one of bowling's most popular, informative and up to date sources of information.